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<\/p>\nGREG PIPER – ASSOCIATE EDITOR
\nThe College Fix<\/p>\n
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\u2018Temporary removal\u2019 is not discipline?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n The school district claims he wasn\u2019t punished. But it dragged him out of class for the day and warned him not to correctly identify the biological sex of a classmate again.<\/p>\n Liberty Counsel said an Ohio school district backed down after the religious liberty law firm warned that it could not punish a sixth grader for disagreeing with classmates who said a boy with gender dysphoria was actually a girl.<\/p>\n According to the narrative by Liberty Counsel in a\u00a0press release<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0subsequent fundraising pitch<\/a>, the school uniformly referred to the gender-confused male (\u201cBoy A\u201d) as a girl and used female pronouns for him.<\/p>\n In a\u00a0redacted letter<\/a>\u00a0to the school district, Liberty Counsel said Boy A had started publicly identifying as a female this spring. It became \u201cheavily discussed at the school, particularly by a group of girls\u201d in John\u2019s classes who quickly started treating Boy A as a girl and frequently discussing his \u201ctransition\u201d with him in art class.<\/p>\n John is also in that class, and considers Boy A a friend. He was \u201csubjected to conversations about these issues constantly, on at least a weekly or semi-weekly basis,\u201d because the girls and Boy A sat directly behind him.<\/p>\n On May 13 the girls claimed that \u201ctaking girl hormones\u201d and eventually getting his \u201cmale private parts removed\u201d would turn Boy A into a girl. John \u201cdisagreed as a factual matter\u201d and said he was \u201cnot a girl.\u201d Another boy agreed that sex is \u201cwhat you\u2019re born with,\u201d and cannot be changed by hormones and surgery, and a third boy \u201cmay have said something to a similar effect,\u201d according to Liberty Counsel.<\/p>\n Their art teacher overheard the conversation and reported John and the boys to the assistant principal, falsely claiming they were \u201cbullying\u201d Boy A and that the third boy called him a \u201chomosexual.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018There might be consequences\u2019 for correctly identifying sex<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n The assistant principal, who is not named, called John into her office the next day and warned him \u201cthere might be consequences\u201d because he called Boy A a boy and used male pronouns. She pulled him out of his physical education class that afternoon \u201cin front of his friends\u201d and apparently warned him again that he\u2019ll be punished if he refuses to refer to Boy A as a girl.<\/p>\n According to Liberty Counsel, John learned \u201cthe other boys received in-school suspension\u201d that day for their participation in the conversation, and out-of-school suspension the following day.<\/p>\n The assistant principal called John\u2019s mother that day and said he was \u201conly\u201d suspended from gym class because though he misgendered Boy A, she didn\u2019t believe that John was participating in the \u201cbullying.\u201d<\/p>\n Liberty Counsel told the school district it was not legally allowed to \u201csilence students who respectfully disagree\u201d with their classmates that \u201ccastration is a good thing\u201d for Boy A. It can\u2019t force John to \u201cencourage\u201d Boy A in his gender identity, because that could play a role in the gender-confused student taking \u201charmful cross-sex hormones\u201d and seeking \u201cnon-medically necessary\u201d surgery.<\/p>\n Citing the Supreme Court\u2019s\u00a0Tinker<\/em>\u00a0ruling, which bans schools from suppressing the peacefully expressed beliefs of students, Liberty Counsel told the school district it was singling out John for participating \u201cin conversation during school time where students may talk\u201d about \u201cotherwise permissible subjects of discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n It emphasized that John was \u201crepeatedly subjected\u201d to these conversations in art class, with the teacher apparently allowing students to affirm Boy A\u2019s gender identity but not disagree with it.<\/p>\n \u2018Enclaves of totalitarianism\u2019 that ignore science<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n To punish John is to \u201cturn classrooms into enclaves of totalitarianism\u201d that censor the \u201ccommonly-held, mainstream, factual view\u201d that sex is biologically determined. Liberty Counsel cited \u201cmore than 6,500 unique differences at the DNA level\u201d between the sexes that do not change based on hormones or surgery.<\/p>\n Not only did the school district botch its own anti-harassment policy, but it\u2019s violating a \u201cstudent rights\u201d policy that protects the constitutional rights of students to express themselves \u201cas appropriate for the school environment.\u201d Since informal transgender discussion has already been approved in the classroom, the school district can\u2019t censor one view, the letter said.<\/p>\n Liberty Counsel threatened to sue if the school district did not expunge John\u2019s record for the incident. It also must promise not to punish or coerce students for \u201crespectful disagreement\u201d with transgender ideology and using sex pronouns correctly, the letter said.<\/p>\n In a\u00a0response letter<\/a>, the school district\u2019s law firm denied that John had been formally disciplined, saying his \u201ctemporary removal\u201d from class was not recorded. It said the Board of Education does not punish students for \u201crespectful disagreement on any topic.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a little more complicated on the pronoun issue:<\/p>\n The Board of Education does not discipline students for using certain pronouns in referring to students or coerce any student to use a particular pronoun. Staff may inform students that a particular student prefers to be referred to as a particular pronoun. However, that would only occur with consent of the student and his or her parents, but no student would be required to use the preferred pronoun.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n According to Liberty Counsel\u2019s release, John\u2019s parents were satisfied with the assurances from the school district.<\/p>\n The unnamed school district is apparently Cincinnati Public Schools, based on the dateline in Liberty Counsel\u2019s original press release.\u00a0The College Fix<\/em>\u00a0has contacted media relations for the school district to verify.<\/p>\n Read the release<\/a>,\u00a0fundraising pitch<\/a>,\u00a0warning letter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0response letter<\/a>.<\/p>\n h\/t\u00a0Christian Broadcasting Network<\/a><\/p>\n MORE<\/strong>:\u00a0Pennsylvania HS to host drag show during school hours<\/a><\/p>\n IMAGE: Brian A. Jackson\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n